


Fall, Fall, Fall

by afrocurl



Series: I Wanna Turn You On [1]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, First Meetings, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-09
Updated: 2012-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-11 19:08:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrocurl/pseuds/afrocurl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Losing nearly a year's worth of research should not be a turn-on. But it somehow is to Charles Xavier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall, Fall, Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ninemoons42](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninemoons42/gifts).



> This started out as a series of ask-box ficlets for **ninemoon42** that I wanted to write to explain how Charles and Erik met in detail for the [Reverse Big Bang](http://xmenreversebang.livejournal.com) story that I wrote for her. That'll be posted tomorrow and this just is the "how they met" to actual RBB fic.

Deep-seated panic takes over. Charles rushes out of the doors of his lab, clutching his laptop for dear life, sprinting to ITS. Winded when he arrives, he waits, impatiently, while some student is complaining about a virus they managed to acquire from a torrent site. More annoyed than he was at the lab, Charles waits. And waits. Then the student is out of the way, and Charles almost breaks his computer on the desk from the force with which he drops it onto the plastic covered plywood of the help desk.

"It won't get me into the log-on screen," he starts before staring at a devilish smile.

The smile has a name tag, "Erik" and Charles watches as Erik waits for him. "I have all of my post-doc work on this machine. Can you save anything?" Charles asks. Charles is also struck by the changing color of Erik’s eyes: a grey blue one minute before a grey green the other. It’s not a trick of the fluorescent lights, but something about the pigment itself. It almost makes Charles want to go into his pickup line about mutations, but he resists as the panic comes back in a rush at the idea of being in ITS on a Sunday morning when he could be looking at his cultures in the lab.

Erik opens the machine, turns it on and waits. "Well," Erik starts, "it seems that if it'll start, something happened to your hard drive. But, it booting up means we can probably salvage the data with the help of another hard drive to get past the login screen. Anything we need to look out for?" he asks, voice a bit too sweet for Charles' tastes in the moment.

"No, I just need everything," Charles says, unconcerned about the few gigs of porn that are in his documents or the rather large collection of _The Think of It_ he has also downloaded while in the lab.

“Your password?”Erik asks a second later.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Charles says, before he scribbles his current password on a slip of paper that Erik pushed towards him.

Charles can tell that Erik isn't normally this nice to anyone, just the saccharin in the other man's voice rings false to Charles as Erik goes back to looking at the screen for a minute, even though Erik doesn’t have another hard drive anywhere near him. But this could mean the end of Charles' research and all the work he's put into his time at Columbia so far, so it's not a bad feelings to be placated.

It makes Charles relax to know that he's being tended to right now, though. "Here's my card if you need to reach me for anything. I do mean _anything_ ," he adds before he turns around quickly to leave. Charles hopes that Erik's watching him leave, rather than the computer.

He'll call later to see how things are going. After he’s gone to his favorite restaurant near campus and enjoyed a Sunday brunch. With plenty of mimosas for him.

If he can’t work on his research, Charles might as well drink.

-

Erik stares at the computer for a minute, impressed with the collection of television and porn that the post-doc has on his computer. But this isn’t just a post-doc, it’s Charles Xavier, as Erik turns the card over between his fingers.

On his regular computer, Erik looks up the man, just to know if that horrible line is something in or out of the norm for Charles. Rate My Professor suggests that Charles is a flirt with all of his students; there are more than enough comments to suggest that a large portion of the Biology department undergrads would like to sleep with Charles--alone or in groups.

Erik smiles before he picks up his phone to dial Charles. Waiting as the phone rings, Erik looks back at the computer, feeling proud that he managed to get everything off of Charles’ computer.

“Hello,” Erik hears on the other end.

“Charles, this is Erik from ITS. I was calling to say that we recovered everything off your computer. We’ll just need another few days to wait for Apple to send another hard drive for us to install.”

“That’s wonderful! Thank you so much, Erik,” Charles says, though it sounds a bit slurred to Erik’s ear.

“It’s no problem; it’s what I’m paid to do,” he says, trying to deflect the praise.

“No, it’s not quite so normal as I would think, but I’d like to thank you all the same,” Charles replies.

Erik pushes the phone away to gulp at the implication. Surely Charles isn’t actually hitting on him right now. “I’m off at five today if you’d like to come back. We won’t be able to order the part until tomorrow, though.”

“I’ll see you at five,” Charles says before his voice is muffled behind the clink of a glass.

Erik’s not sure what he’s just done; he’s not one to flirt, or respond to flirting.

Maybe it’s the porn that Charles has on his computer. That’s it.

-

Charles all but rushes back to his apartment to change into something else--something that doesn’t make him look like a sixty-year old man who would work with Mr. Rogers--and then tries to find some way to pass four hours before he goes back to ITS.

Back to Erik, more precisely.

He calls Hank to explain what happened with the computer, knowing full well that his friend will tell Raven exactly what happened. Charles leaves out the part about the guy from ITS being his type in the conversation; Hank is almost family at this point, but Charles tries to keep Hank, and more importantly Raven, from knowing about his sex life. There’s nothing in the lab that can’t wait until Monday if he doesn’t have access to his computer.

The call complete, Charles sits, trying to find himself with something to do besides daydream about what Erik might say in the moment they meet again. He’s long been a helpless romantic, even if it has fallen apart more often than not.

Charles shakes his head away from the memory of Steve, nice as he was and those awful sweaters, or how persistent his mother had been about setting him up with someone who was serving the country so proudly.

Just by the grin on Erik’s face, Charles knows he’s the complete opposite of Steve.

How much is the only question left. Charles is willing to test his theory as soon as he walks into ITS.

That plan is a much better way to spend a few hours.

-

Erik hates small talk. Charles, on the other hand, loves it. Erik has already learned about Charles’ entire family in five minutes. He’s only offered encouraging hums of agreement to Charles, afraid that breaking the flow of conversation will show how awkward he is. How much he doesn’t normally talk to people.

As soon as Charles stops talking, though, Erik finds his hand being drawn away from himself too quickly. His feet are nearly caught up on each other as Charles pushes them towards the bathroom.

Erik’s not going to mind whatever Charles has planned here, though. He won’t have to talk, that’s for sure, if the hand down his jeans and the teeth against his neck are an indication of Charles’ goal.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **Unforgotten** for the quick beta. Title is from a song by Razorlight by the same name.


End file.
